Mr. Herriman is a main character in the Flash-Animated cartoon Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends on Cartoon Network, voiced by Tom Kane. He is the president/head of house of Foster's, and is Frankie's boss. He's an organized, proper, uptight, stern, lawful, rules-oriented but still somewhat naive rabbit.

Mr. Herriman

Description

Mr. Herriman is a man-sized rabbit friend who wears a top hat, a monocle, a tuxedo coat, white gloves, a bow-tie, a yellow vest, and a mustache while speaking in an English accent in a personification of the Edwardian era. He is the head of the house and runs things for Madame Foster, his creator. He is the oldest friend in the house, which is something he is quite sensitive about. He is named for Krazy Kat creator George Herriman, with a pun on "hare."

He stands six feet tall (seven feet with his top hat on) and weighing in at 210 pounds. Quite the opposite of his carefree and calm-tempered creator Madame Foster, Mr. Herriman is a stickler for rules, having made many silly and impractical rules in an attempt to keep everything "running smoothly," to the point of being ridiculous. He usually refers to others in a proper manner, calling males "Master" and females "Miss" in front of their name, the only time he actually calls people in normal fashion is when he is in pure terror. He is shown to have an addiction to carrots (which he will go to great, even desperate, lengths to hide), despite his best attempts to ignore or get over the weakness. He is phobic of dogs and is easily sent into a panic whenever he comes across a dog or anything dog related because dogs are natural predators of rabbits. Because of this, he made a rule that no dogs are allowed in the home.

Mr. Herriman, though proper, has often shown a lack of social skills. His ways of being proper are to the point to where the other imaginary friends cannot stand him or being around him, his ways of keeping things "running just the right way" often inconveniences the other characters to the point of being disrespectful. Frankie has a strong disliking towards Mr. Herriman, due to his constant lack of consideration towards her and often talks her down, whether he is aware of it or not. At the end of "Destination Imagination," however, he realizes his poor judgement towards her after witnessing how she handled World, even putting forth an agreement to have the other friends help her around the house. He has a strong disliking for Bloo, due to his chaotic nature and constant rule breaking.

Although Mr. Herriman is a strong stickler for the rules, he is often over-ruled by his creator Madame Foster. Despite the fact that they often disagree on things (rules mostly), Herriman and Madame Foster have an unquestionably loving relationship, and at times Herriman will appease his creator much in the way that he did when Madame Foster was a little girl (such performing his 'Funny Bunny' dance and song for her when in private). He is also very protective of Madame Foster, to where even she tells him to relax. Mr. Herriman was featured in Cartoon Network's comic series based on the show, hallucinating Madame Foster as a little girl after getting high on cleaning solvents in the "Ill Will" issue. Herriman recalls in the issue how, as a young child, Madame Foster spilled something over and when questioned by her parents, she blamed him, so he claims that incident as being his reason for obsessing over cleaning, rules and manners, to avoid getting in trouble again.

Mr. Herriman is very passionate about his job as the house president, taking the job seriously, as he's stated that being the president of the house makes him feel like he is needed and important to the Foster community. Herriman is surprisingly old fashioned, even believing that the internet is an actual net. It is believed that Madame Foster created him during the 1930s, making him believe the 2000s are still running in the old-fashioned ways of living.

Mr. Herriman is comparable to Captain Peacock from the British TV sit-com Are You Being Served? mainly his being a stickler for rules, similar accent and upper crust attitude. This was derailed in the episode "Let Your Hare Down," when his alter ego, a hippie type called "Harry" had no regard for rules until William Collector came and he became his old self again.

Similarities to the Mayor of Townsville

Mr. Herriman and the Mayor of Townsville in The Powerpuff Girls (Craig McCracken's other original cartoon) have several similarities:

They both wear black top hats and waistcoats.

They both have a monocle over their left eye, although Mr. Herriman's monocle has been switched between his left and right eye often many times, such as in "Hiccy Burp," where it changes three times in one scene alone. He does, however, seem not to be able to see very well without it.

They both have a white mustache which moves as they speak.

Both usually have their eyes closed (though awake).

Both have an unhealthy obsession over a certain food (carrots and pickles respectively).

Trivia

Aside from Mr. Herriman's similarities to the Mayor of Townsville, his voice actor, Tom Kane, is also known for providing voicework to The Powerpuff Girls, namely Professor Utonium and Him.

He actually has secret immature behavior, like lying in Berry Scary and especially in Crime After Crime where he punishes everybody without a good reason because the places the imaginary friends are in have the carrots he hid.

While Mr. Herriman can keep things going smoothly, he seems to be unable to do the work himself as seen in Destination Imagination.

He has a habit of forgetting to mention one small key detail as seen in "Goodbye to Bloo". This was also explored as well during the events of "The Big Cheese". Where he literally thinks choosing a code a random is not looking at the numbers and typing it.

His golden trading card statistics from the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Leapster game are: